IV   Orathon  

"R-Rick?" she stuttered, blinking a couple of times to wipe away the hallucination. But her brother was unresponsive to her calls. She gulped as she gathered the courage in her to approach her brother, the same person that she was just thankful to have him so close to her as she walked – for a second she doubted that.

The second that her fingertips came in contact with the fabric of his white hoodie, he snapped out of it. She felt her heart finally at ease as she saw the light come back to the violet of his eyes. Elfric raised his head as he blinked ignorantly, the last couple of minutes of his life was a haze that he couldn't remember.

For a moment he felt that he wasn't there, that there was nothing but the emptiness in him, an empty vessel left in space. He felt the thick sweat beads fall down his brow. As he regained his sense, he noticed the long hard stare of his sister who was half a step ahead of him watching as he came back to life.

"W-What happened?" Elfric stuttered as he brought a hand to his forehead, wiping the sweat that was forming despite the chillness of the morning breeze.

"You were out of it for a good minute there, Elfric," said she. The worry was clear in the tone of her voice as she scanned every cell on her brother's face. "Are you sure that you are well enough to go to school again?" she narrowed her eyes.

"I'm fine!" he interrupted leaving her no time to tell him how she was right the previous night when she argued that he shouldn't be going to school when he just came out of the hospital. 'Besides, if I stay at home that voice is going to kill me alive' he continued the words in his head.

No one knows yet of the hallucinations that have been happening to him since that cursed night – that shadow. The voice in his head. He was evens starting to believe that the voice was getting more frequent, saying the same thing over and over again.

'I shall thee call'

There it was again. He wanted to scream out how he never called anyone, he didn't need anyone to heed his call because there was no one, to begin with!

"Let's go," he muttered as he clenched his fist over the strap of his bag. Not waiting for his sister to reply and went on ahead of her. Her calls for him fell on deaf ears as he wasn't fully there in his head. His legs moved through the memory that it gained from walking the same path for years.

Elfric watched as his sister got inside her school building as she met up with her friends. The smile that she had plastered on her rounded – normal face – made him realize what he was about to lose the other night – that cursed night.

He envied her…her natural dark brown hair and the honey-colored eyes that they got from their father. He doubted that Joanna was aware of that, she was too young when their father went to work and never came back. The only thing that he has taken from him was the color of his left eye…it was the only thing common between him and the rest of his family for that matter.

He finally snapped out of his daze from the loud honks of the traffic behind him. He dragged his feet underneath him to get to his own school. Like always, his hood was up covering the whiteness of his hair, the shadow cast by it was making it hard to see that he was bicolored-eyed. It also helped him make less contact with the people on the street.

It recked of Nobility. To him, the expensive smell of their perfume made him want to puck. All he had to do was cross that bridge to get to the other side of the city, to leave the ruins of the once-great city and find himself in the den of the Nobility. Lauxdale.

Why did a commoner like him go to school in Lauxdale? Well, the answer is simple. The government saw that they would be doing the commoner like him a favor by throwing him and nobles in one school. Commoners and nobility in one urban fabric sounded like a good way to show the democracy in the country.

He halted. Spotting the shadow that appeared in front of him, obstructing his view of the gray asphalt. He raised his head in annoyance, making sure to keep his face from view. 5 men were lined up in front of him.

He could have just maneuvered his way around them if it hadn't been for the narrow sidewalk, and from the looks of it…they weren't just standing his way by coincidence. A man dressed in a black suit that looks exactly like the other four came forth a step.

His eyes were narrowed – or that was how he usually looked – Elfric couldn't decide. "May I help you?" said Elfric as he raised an eyebrow despite his shaded face, but he figured that he didn't need to show his expression to tell that he was annoyed.

"Elfric Woods," the man in black said, his hands were held behind his back. His whole being screamed that he was here in someone else's steed. The way that he said his name made Elfric feel that he was sure that he has got the right person – not that he could blame him – anyone would have been able to guess him.

"I believe that if I said no that would still not change whatever you have in your mind," Elfric snorted as he shifted his weight to the other leg. His eyebrows flinched in annoyance as he saw the smirk that was starting to spread on the red-haired man.

"If Orathan did choose you then I'm starting to understand his reason,"

The way that this man talked to felt like it was created for the sole purpose of making Elfric pissed off, and he wasn't exactly having the best of mornings. "You have got the wrong guy," said Elfric, adjusting his bag on his shoulder as he decided to push forward through the wall of them.

Elfric felt a strong hand grab his forearm. His eyes darkened, he turned to look over his shoulder to look at the red-headed man that was holding him firmly by the arm.

"If I were you, I would let go," Elfric hissed, at this point, he couldn't care less if that man noticed the color of his eyes. No, if he approached him knowing who he is then he must already know about it. Even though he has no idea why in the world would this noble be looking for him.

"Orathan," said the man in black. "If you are within this human then, I summon you to come forth."

For a second there, Elfric wanted to ask if this man was alright. What the hell is he talking about and who the hell is Orathan that he seems to be looking for?!

But before any of that happened, Elfric saw as the man gestured for the four men behind him. Their speed…they weren't human. That much he could say, no one could launch ahead at that fast but, to Elfric's surprise, he found himself dodging it with ease.

"It's him," said the man in black again. "Kill him."

And that was all Elfric witnessed. The next thing that happened to him was nothing less than a blackout. His mind was blank, to the point that he felt that he didn't exist but far away somewhere in this nothingness…he could hear the screams. Loud and agonizing.

Was he the one screaming? No, it wasn't him. That wasn't his voice. It was probably the voices of the men that are most probably on him now. But why would they be screaming when he was the one about to get beaten to a pulp?

The answer came to him that moment he was out of his daze. The strong smell of blood was blinding him as he opened his eyes to find himself in a narrow alley somewhere.

His eyes darted off his surroundings. Blood was painting the walls around him like graffiti, except that this one was still dripping into the dirt – the blood was freshly splashed on the walls, and it was before long that Elfric saw the 4 bodies on the ground, drowning in their own blood.

Their eyes were dilated as if they have seen the devil before they left to meet him once again. What the hell happened here!? Elfric brought up his hands to wipe the sweat off his face, only to smear his face with the blood that was coating his hands like gloves.

He turned his hands over, making sure that it was him. The reflection that he saw in the glass of a passing car ahead made it sure that it was him. The bloody hands were his.

Did he kill them?! There was no way! He was annoyed but not to the extent that he would have to kill them!? How – just how did he do that he has no memory. The moving figure on the ground caught his attention.

The red-headed man was looking at him with the same look on the faces of the others, except that this one… was alive.

"Y-You m..monster…You are...Orathan,"